Poet laureates to read at Emporia State University

February 28, 2013

Two Kansas poet laureates are among a group planning to read poetry at Emporia State University on Friday night as the university continues to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

Kansas Poets 150 is from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, March 1, in the PKP Room of the Memorial Union at Emporia State. The Emporia event is part of the Poets 150 project, according to local organizer, Kevin Rabas, professor and co-director of the Creative Writing Program at Emporia State.

Poets 150 celebrates the book “To the Stars Through Difficulties: A Kansas Renga in 150 Voices,” which was edited by current Kansas poet laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. This moving tribute to the arts and culture of Kansas focuses on the state motto ("To the stars through difficulties") through the use of the renga, a 700-year-old Japanese form of poetry in which each writer adds new lines to the poem.